Linda Jones, the R.B. Hewlett ’40 Professor
of Engineering and director of the Picker Engineering Program,
was recently named a 2006 "trendsetter" by Public
Works
magazine, her name appearing on the alphabetical list near
that of a former
vice president. Editors honed the list to "50 people,
places and events that
shaped, shocked or otherwise rocked our world over the past
year." Of
Jones, the editors wrote: "One of the nation's foremost
researchers in
high-temperature materials, she became the director of Smith
College's
Picker Engineering Program in July 2005. Since then, the school
has
partnered with Princeton University to begin an engineering
exchange program
to place men and women in different learning environments
and prepare them
for teamwork in their careers. Smith College is the nation's
first women's
college to have an engineering program, which graduated its
first class in
2004. In 2005, the program was accredited by the Accreditation
Board for
Engineering and Technology."

Elan McCollum
’08 and Siobhan O’Riordan ’07,
lab research assistants for Byron Zamboanga, assistant professor
of psychology, won honors for their presentations of their
research projects at the New England Psychological Association
conference in Manchester, N.H., Oct. 20-21. McCollum took
the Best Undergraduate Poster Award, which included a $100
prize, and O’Riordan received an Honorable Mention in
the same category.

A production of the
play Pulling Apart, by Ellen Kaplan,
professor of theater, recently won the Moss Hart Memorial
Award for Best Production, college and university division.
The award was given for a production by the Southern Connecticut
State University Department of Theater during its 2005-06
season, directed by Sheila Hickey Garvey. The Moss Hart Memorial
Award is given annually by the New England Theatre Conference
to encourage artistic growth and the highest standards of
excellence in theater. The award is endowed by actress Kitty
Carlisle Hart in memory of the late Moss Hart, a celebrated
playwright and stage director. Pulling Apart is a
poetic drama based on Kaplan’s family's recent experiences
emigrating to Israel.

EllenWatson, director of the Smith College Poetry
Center, also serves as editor and poetry editor for the Massachusetts
Review, an Amherst quarterly periodical of literature,
the arts, and public affairs, which was recently selected
as a Massachusetts charity for the 2006 Catalogue for
Philanthropy. The catalogue profiles 72 of the state’s
outstanding environmental, cultural and human service agencies
as “examples of excellence” in Massachusetts philanthropy.
The Massachusetts Review was chosen from among more
than 250 organizations. Founded in 1959 by a group of professors
from Smith, Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges and UMass-Amherst,
the Massachusetts Review is one of the nation’s
leading literary magazines.

Al-Hajja
Khalilah Karim-Rushdan, chaplain to the Muslim community,
is one among some 100 leading Muslim women invited from around
the world to attend WISE: The Women’s Islamic Initiative
in Spirituality and Equity in New York City Nov. 17-19. The
WISE conference is intended to empower Muslim women to play
a greater role in their societies worldwide. The event is
organized by the American Society for Muslim Advancement.
Karim-Rushdan will join Muslim women leaders such as Baroness
Uddin, the first Muslim woman to enter the British House of
Lords; Nafis Sadik, Special Adviser to the United Nations
Secretary-General; Massouda Jalal, Afghani presidential candidate;
and Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North
America.

Marjorie
H. Everitt ’86 was recently named vice president
for development and university communications at Stevens Institute
of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., a leading technological university
offering degrees in engineering, science, computer science,
management and technology management. Everitt, who was promoted
from her position of associate vice president for development
and external affairs, will focus on preparing the institute
for a major endowment-building initiative.

People News is
a column for publicizing the achievements, distinctions
and notable activities of people in the Smith community,
PeopleNews welcomes your submissions. If you -- or someone
you know in the Smith community -- have recently received
an award, participated in an interesting event, or are
involved in an important endeavor, please
let us know.